Not Guilty

Harrison wrote it in 1968 and demoed it acoustically at Kinfauns, his home in Esher, in May. He said in 1987 that it was him "sticking up for myself" against criticism he felt from Lennon and McCartney after the break with the Maharishi at Rishikesh, and at a 1979 press conference denied it was aimed purely at McCartney. The Beatles worked on it at EMI Studios from 7 to 9 and on 12 August 1968 with George Martin producing and Ken Scott engineering: 46 takes on the first day, 18 of them on the intro alone, takes 47 to 101 on the second with Lennon moving from electric piano to harpsichord, a reduction of take 99 that became take 102 and six hours of overdubs on the third, with Harrison's lead guitar recorded in the control room and his amplifier in the echo chambers, and a second lead vocal on the last. Harrison sang and played lead and rhythm guitars, McCartney played bass and Starr drums. In October 1968 Mal Evans said it would not be on the White Album, and it was not.

Geoff Emerick made a stereo mix in the early 1980s for the shelved Sessions album, cut by about a minute, and an edit prepared in 1984 was bootlegged on Ultra Rare Trax Vol. 3. The official release came on Anthology 3 on 28 October 1996 as an edited 3:22 of take 102, which is our upload; the full 4:28 take and the Esher demo followed on the 2018 White Album anniversary edition. Harrison recorded it again for his 1979 album George Harrison, at 3:35, produced with Russ Titelman at his Henley studio with Neil Larsen, Steve Winwood, Willie Weeks, Andy Newmark and Ray Cooper, and said of it then: "I like the tune a lot; it would make a great tune for Peggy Lee or someone." No single, chart entry or music video is recorded, and no Beatles performance of it is known.